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Hong Kong 'liaising' with US over carbendazim in orange juice

Food safety officials in Hong Kong are continuing to liaise with US authorities over carbendazim levels in orange juice – despite tests on the beverage returning negative results.

The Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety (CFS) told FoodQualityNews.com: “CFS is liaising with the US authorities for more information of the incident.”

“Regarding the recent media report that several brands of orange juice made from Brazil oranges are being sold in Hong Kong, the CFS has contacted the relevant Hong Kong traders for information and taken relevant fruit juice samples of the brands for testing of carbendazim with all results ‘carbendazim not detected’.”

The CFS statement comes just over a week after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its intention to deny entry to shipments of orange juice that contain the fungicide.

FoodQualityNews.com reported that authorities in Australia and New Zealand have followed the US lead – blocking imports contaminated with carbendazim.

Malaysia has also promised to step up monitoring of the beverage.

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